Another Leiden Suspect

An 18-year-old boy, who is staying in Costa Rica, is suspected as the one who has threatened to do a shooting at a school in Leiden. The suspect is a previous student of a high school in Leiden. The boy has not been arrested. Because he is staying abroad, it is impossible that his threat can be executed. Thus, the police can now stop securing the schools.

This was announced during a press conference by Mayor Henry Lenferink, the Prosecution and the District Chief of the Police. “The threat is practically zero,” says Police Chief Joep Patijn. There are no indications that there are others involved in the threat.

The boy who was arrested on Monday as the alleged threatener has been released and is no longer a suspect.

Because of the threat, all high schools and MBOs stayed closed on Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, classes were held but police officers had to guard many school buildings throughout the whole city. According to Patijn, the police have spent 443 ‘days’ in total since Sunday.

The police investigation led to computer servers in Costa Rica.  When this was made public on Monday, they received many tips about the suspect.

Some time ago the suspect was supposed to have had conflict with his Dutch language teacher. His old school, however, has denied this. “We don’t know anything about that. It is simply not true,” the director of the Leonardo da Vinci group of schools told ANP.

The prosecutor refused to disclose if there had been any conflict between the student and his teacher and if the suspect was known at Youth Care.

At present the authorities are trying to get the boy in Costa Rica to the Netherlands. He is a suspected of making grave threats for which he can get 2 years of imprisonment. They hope that the suspect will come voluntarily to the Netherlands. If not, he will face an international arrest warrant.